/geo-technical

name: geo-technical
description: Technical SEO audit with GEO-specific checks — crawlability, indexability, security, performance, SSR, and AI crawler access
version: 1.0.0
author: geo-seo-claude
tags: [geo, technical-seo, core-web-vitals, ssr, crawlability, security, performance]
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, WebFetch, Write

GEO Technical SEO Audit

Purpose

Technical SEO forms the foundation of both traditional search visibility and AI search citation. A technically broken site cannot be crawled, indexed, or cited by any platform. This skill audits 8 categories of technical health with specific attention to GEO requirements — most critically, **server-side rendering** (AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript) and **AI crawler access** (many sites inadvertently block AI crawlers in robots.txt).

How to Use This Skill

1. Collect the target URL (homepage + 2-3 key inner pages) 2. Fetch each page using curl/WebFetch to get raw HTML and HTTP headers 3. Run through each of the 8 audit categories below 4. Score each category using the rubric 5. Generate GEO-TECHNICAL-AUDIT.md with results

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Category 1: Crawlability (15 points)

1.1 robots.txt Validity

• Fetch `https://[domain]/robots.txt`
• Check for syntactic validity: proper `User-agent`, `Allow`, `Disallow` directives
• Check for common errors: missing User-agent, wildcards blocking important paths, Disallow: / blocking entire site
• Verify XML sitemap is referenced: `Sitemap: https://[domain]/sitemap.xml`

1.2 AI Crawler Access (CRITICAL for GEO)

Check robots.txt for directives targeting these AI crawlers:

| Crawler | User-Agent | Platform | |---|---|---| | GPTBot | GPTBot | ChatGPT / OpenAI | | Google-Extended | Google-Extended | Gemini / Google AI training | | Googlebot | Googlebot | Google Search + AI Overviews | | Bingbot | bingbot | Bing Copilot + ChatGPT (via Bing) | | PerplexityBot | PerplexityBot | Perplexity AI | | ClaudeBot | ClaudeBot | Anthropic Claude | | Amazonbot | Amazonbot | Alexa / Amazon AI | | CCBot | CCBot | Common Crawl (used by many AI models) | | FacebookBot | FacebookExternalHit | Meta AI | | Bytespider | Bytespider | TikTok / ByteDance AI | | Applebot-Extended | Applebot-Extended | Apple Intelligence |

**Scoring for AI crawler access:**

• All major AI crawlers allowed: 5 points
• Some blocked but Googlebot + Bingbot allowed: 3 points
• GPTBot or PerplexityBot blocked: 1 point (significant GEO impact)
• Googlebot blocked: 0 points (fatal)

**Important nuance**: Blocking Google-Extended does NOT block Googlebot. Google-Extended only controls AI training data usage, not search indexing. However, blocking Google-Extended may reduce presence in AI Overviews. Recommend allowing Google-Extended unless there is a specific data licensing concern.

1.3 XML Sitemaps

• Fetch sitemap (check robots.txt for location, or try `/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`)
• Validate XML syntax
• Check for `<lastmod>` dates (should be present and accurate)
• Count URLs — compare to expected number of indexable pages
• Check for sitemap index if large site (50,000+ URLs per sitemap max)
• Verify all sitemap URLs return 200 status codes (sample check)

1.4 Crawl Depth

• Homepage = depth 0. Check that all important pages are reachable within **3 clicks** (depth 3)
• Pages at depth 4+ receive significantly less crawl budget and are less likely to be cited by AI
• Check internal linking: are key content pages linked from the homepage or main navigation?

1.5 Noindex Management

• Check for `<meta name="robots" content="noindex">` on pages that SHOULD be indexed
• Check for `X-Robots-Tag: noindex` HTTP headers
• Common mistakes: noindex on paginated pages, category pages, or key landing pages

**Category Scoring:** | Check | Points | |---|---| | robots.txt valid and complete | 3 | | AI crawlers allowed | 5 | | XML sitemap present and valid | 3 | | Crawl depth within 3 clicks | 2 | | No erroneous noindex directives | 2 |

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Category 2: Indexability (12 points)

2.1 Canonical Tags

• Every indexable page must have a `<link rel="canonical" href="...">` tag
• Canonical must point to itself (self-referencing) for the authoritative version
• Check for conflicting canonicals (canonical in HTML vs. HTTP header)
• Check for canonical chains (A canonicals to B, B canonicals to C — should be A to C)

2.2 Duplicate Content

• Check for www vs. non-www (both should resolve, one should redirect)
• Check for HTTP vs. HTTPS (HTTP should redirect to HTTPS)
• Check for trailing slash consistency (pick one pattern and redirect the other)
• Check for parameter-based duplicates (`?sort=price` creating duplicate pages)

2.3 Pagination

• If paginated content exists, check for `rel="next"` / `rel="prev"` (note: Google ignores these as of 2019, but Bing still uses them)
• Preferred: use `rel="canonical"` on paginated pages pointing to a view-all page or the first page
• Ensure paginated pages are not noindexed if they contain unique content

2.4 Hreflang (international sites)

• Check for `<link rel="alternate" hreflang="xx">` tags
• Validate: reciprocal hreflang (if page A points to page B, B must point back to A)
• Validate: x-default fallback exists
• Check for language/region code validity (ISO 639-1 / ISO 3166-1)

2.5 Index Bloat

• Estimate number of indexed pages (check sitemap count, use `site:domain.com` estimate)
• Compare indexed pages to actual valuable content pages
• Flag if indexed pages significantly exceed content pages (index bloat from thin/duplicate/parameter pages)

**Category Scoring:** | Check | Points | |---|---| | Canonical tags correct on all pages | 3 | | No duplicate content issues | 3 | | Pagination handled correctly | 2 | | Hreflang correct (if applicable) | 2 | | No index bloat | 2 |

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Category 3: Security (10 points)

3.1 HTTPS Enforcement

• Site must load over HTTPS
• HTTP must redirect to HTTPS (301 redirect)
• No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources